Detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex Bacilli and Nucleic Acids From Tongue Swabs in Young, Hospitalized Children.

ABSTRACT: Diagnosis of tuberculosis in pediatric patients remains challenging due to inherent difficulties associated with obtaining respiratory samples for molecular and culture-based testing. To address this, recent studies have highlighted the utility of tongue swabs to detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomic DNA in the oral epithelia of tuberculosis infected adults. It is unknown whether tongue swabs have similar utility for diagnosis of childhood tuberculosis and if the presence of DNA in these swabs was associated with whole bacilli. We therefore sought to conduct a preliminary assessment of the utility of tongue swabs to detect tubercle bacilli and their associated genetic material in young children. For this, we recruited hospitalized children with clinically diagnosed tuberculosis

SUBMITTER: Ealand C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8238041 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature